Bradley Cooper nominated for best actor for "Silver Linings Playbook" arrives at the Academy Awards nominees luncheon held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. / Robert Hanashiro USAT

by Matt Lashey, USA TODAY

by Matt Lashey, USA TODAY

When the winners are announced Sunday night at the 85th annual Academy Awards, some careers will be greatly affected. While most people assume an Oscar win will immediately make a career, it isn't always the case.

Hollywood studios and agents, after all, have spent the last year campaigning and positioning their projects to just receive a coveted nomination. Actors and actresses who are nominated must take advantage of the branding opportunities presented by the publicity. For the Hollywood image makers that have been working for months to get their clients noticed, Sunday night is just the beginning of their work.

Some nominees react to an Oscar nomination by over-reaching or creating expectations that are too lofty. Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s 1996 win for Jerry Maguire or Kim Basinger's 1997 Best Supporting Actress win for L.A. Confidential are examples of the Oscar curse. Gooding's team created contract expectations that the studios couldn't meet while Basinger was panned for believing the next projects would easily come to her.

Other actors use a non-win to launch their career by taking advantage of the exposure for just being nominated. Glenn Close, for instance, has been nominated six times but has never won. Kenneth Branagh has been nominated five times but has never taken home an Oscar. Close and Branagh prove that the power of an Oscar nomination is in the ability to add quality and depth to their brand equity. Actors who focus solely on getting a bigger paycheck are sure to be disappointed.

On average, Best Picture nominees can expect to take in an extra $15 to $20 million in box office receipts and another $15 million if they win. But none of the 2013 Best Picture nominees were a Top 10 grossing film. In fact, Lincoln is the highest grossing film of the Best Picture nominees and it's just the 19th highest grossing film of the year. Movie studios and production companies generally don't recoup their costs through box office and ticket sales alone anymore. Rather, studio executives use the buzz of an Oscar nomination to create ancillary revenue streams like DVD sales, iTunes downloading and even merchandising. These non-traditional revenue sources are becoming much more traditional -- and even lucrative.

It's one of the reasons Hollywood has made the pirating issue a hot political issue in Washington. When China illegally reproduces Hollywood's movies and distributes them on their own, a huge source of income is forever lost.

Hollywood executives have had to think creatively. New opportunities to make money outside of the traditional box office sales or DVD distribution are a top priority for studio heads. In the last few years we have seen video game sales surpass many traditional revenue sources. Even virtual products bought online are being sold in conjunction with a brand or video game. Capitalizing on the newer distribution channels like mobile downloads or streaming can create significant monetary rewards after an Oscar nomination. The proliferation of technology and new delivery platforms create new markets and opportunities for studio executives and talent agents but there are no guarantees of success.

Hollywood management teams are hard at work building and shaping their clients' brand. Bradley Cooper, for instance, has been widely known as that dude from Wedding Crashers and Hangover. His nomination for Best Actor in Silver Linings Playbook this year is a major shift to embrace more serious acting roles and could be the beginning of a successful pivot for Cooper. Daniel Day-Lewis, on the other hand, is known as a serious but aging actor. Day-Lewis has already twice won the academy award for Best Actor -- first for My Left Foot in 1989 and then for There Will Be Blood in 2007. His team will use the 2013 nomination to keep him relevant.

Jessica Chastain, too, was previously nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 2011 for The Help but did not win the Oscar. Her team should use this year's nomination for Zero Dark Thirty to show she is a serious actress with incredible depth emphasizing a long lasting career.

But perhaps the one to gain or lose the most this year is the all-time youngest Best Actress nominee Quvenzhané Wallis, age 9. Her team will have to work hard to ensure she isn't a one-hit wonder child star. Wallis could fall into the undesirable path of Keisha Castle-Hughes who was nominated as a Best Actress nominee for Whale Rider in 2003, the year Wallis was born. At the time, Castle-Hughes was also the youngest actress ever nominated for Best Actress (Charlize Theron won the award for Monster that year).

An Oscar win or even a nomination isn't a guarantee for future success, it's only an opportunity. The real winners Sunday night won't be known for a few more years.